INDIAN MUSIC / MUSIQUE INDIENNE

Rivers

Shawn Mativetsky

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Shawn Mativetsky presents his new solo tabla album, Rivers, a rhythmic journey to Varanasi, India! Accompanied by George Koller on dilruba, this tabla solo recording is rooted in the rich traditions of the Benares style of tabla playing, combining creativity and spontaneity, voice and percussion. Exponent of the Benares gharana, Shawn Mativetsky is a disciple of the legendary Pandit Sharda Sahai.

This tabla solo is set in the principal rhythmic cycle of North Indian classical music, Teentaal, a 16-beat cycle. The Vilambit Laya (slow tempo) section focuses on theme-and-variation improvisation, while the Madhya Laya (medium tempo) section features fixed compositions. All the repertoire performed is traditional, having been passed down from generation to generation, from Guru (teacher) to shishya (disciple). The tabla solo is accompanied by a repeating melody, called lehra, which serves to provide an aural outline of the underlying cycle. Typically, a single melody is played throughout the entire solo, however for Rivers, five different ragas have been carefully selected, each specifically chosen to evoke a different mood, creating a distinctive flavour for each section of the solo.

We have no idea what to call this music.
Improvised chamber music? Spontaneous world music? Jazz meets everything else? Instant collective creation? Four guys listening?
There is only one thing for certain with OS,MB: there are no rules. Any sound, any harmony, any musical gesture – however beautiful or however ugly – is on the table, in real time, at any time. That’s all we do.

As a point of departure, our instrumentation creates a cultural collision of sonic resources : North American jazz, blues and rock (electric guitar), a centuries-old Asian improvisational tradition (tabla) and the European classical universe (violon). Add to that our special guest, composer and extended-technique vocalist Gabriel Dharmoo, and the possibilities and references become both exhilarating and bewildering, all at the same time.

What keeps this grounded is the sense of dialogue and desire to communicate. This is not sound as sound, it is sound as performance, sound as human interaction. It is a conversation where the subject is always of sound, mind and body.